TALKING ABOUT THE HUGUENOTS
One of my New Year resolutions for 2026 was to update the NEWS page on my website more regularly. Not gone so well so far, but I am determined to improve!
Last night I was in Waltham Abbey, speaking to their Historical Society.
I’ve been giving a lot of talks over the past year – to historical societies, WIs and other interested organisations – and I find I really enjoy doing this. At the moment, the talks centre of the Legacy of the Huguenots, using the extensive research I did for my book THE KING’S COMMAND about the flight of the Huguenots from France after the Edict of Nantes, which had protected them for so long, was revoked in 1685 by Louis XIV.
Although the King expelled Huguenot pastors, giving them two weeks to leave the country, he did not want to lose the hard working and successful laity. He wanted them to convert and continue to contribute to the wealth and prosperity of the realm.
Yet many of them refused to convert and left the country in secret, knowing that they would face dire punishment if they were caught.
50,000 came to England at the time of the Revocation. What did they contribute to this country? What is their Legacy?
The answer is a huge amount. England would be a very different place without the skills they brought here and passed on.
My own Huguenot ancestors came to London shortly after the Revocation and settled ‘in the pretty village of Hammersmith’ and in THE KING’S COMMAND, based on what I know of their experience, I tell the story of one family’s terrifying experience of fleeing from persecution in South West France and finally finding refuge in England.
And later in the year I intend to put together a new presentation about spying during the time of the Napoleonic Wars, based on the research I did for my recently published trilogy ‘Soldier Spy’.
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